The heart of this lay-up is a wood core that’s been whittled by a 5-axis milling machine to pare away every gram of excess mass. Square sidewalls are replaced by sloping shoulders that slice easily through 3-D snow. A thin Titanal shell reinforces the ski underfoot and the Carbon Nose lowers swing weight and helps stabilize the rocker zone.
Whether one prefers the behavior of a square-sidewall, a two-Titanal-sheet RC4 race ski or the minimalist Air Tec Ti models depends on one’s predilections, but what one can’t deny is the preposterously light skis the latter design make possible. While we normally steer clear of the BC market, we can’t resist referencing the Alpattack, made for the insane activity of running up the nearest Alp. Made in the svelte, domed contours of Aeroshape around a pared-away, Paulownia Air Tec Ti core, the Alpattack weighs a trifling 650 grams, or about 1/3 the weight of an average alpine ski.